I Never Noticed
by RanmaLove
Summary: When Sayuri forces Akane to notice Ranma's attractive appearance, she can't stop noticing things about him. Like, for instance... that she's in love with him.


Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½

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I Never Noticed

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"Ranma's so handsome!" cooed Sayuri, one of Akane's close friends. The blonde clasped her hands together, turning her gaze from the shirtless sixteen-year-old drying his face from sweat and faced Akane. "You don't know how lucky you are, Akane!"

She shrugged indifferently, focusing on her meal rather than her troublesome fiancé. "Not that lucky since he's an egomaniac with the manners of a wild animal."

Sayuri rolled her eyes as a response. "Come on, Akane! You can't keep denying the fact that you're totally head-over-heels in love with him."

Instantly her face caught on fire as she began blurting incomprehensible sentences to her friend. "What? No! I don't even- he's not! Ranma? You're joking!" Frustrated and embarrassed, she helplessly glanced at her bento box and blushed, avoiding eye contact.

"Goodness Akane, you can't even admit that he's attractive at least?"

Akane sighed, glancing over her shoulder at her fiancé to at least pretend she was considering her friend's statement. What was all that good about Ranma anyway? All her friends and classmates practically fell over every time they saw him. He was muscular- so what? There are thousands of bodybuilders all over the world, what made him so special? The blue eyes? Please, it isn't as if that's not a common trait shared with millions of people. "He looks the same he has all year. Nothing worth making a fuss over, Sayuri."

The girl frowned, not satisfied in the slightest. "So, he's ugly?"

"I didn't say that."

"Then what exactly _are _you saying?" Sayuri leaned across the desk, a small smile appearing on her face. "If you're not saying he's ugly, then he's cute right?"

"I…" she stopped, realizing she was in a lose-lose situation. If she admitted that Ranma was ugly, then she was insulting her fiancé which she would of course feel guilty about it yet if she did say that he was attractive, her friend would never let her live it down and accuse her of having feelings for him. Laughing uneasily, she blurted: "I'll look again!"

Ranma, she realized, had this smile. She watched him grin cockily at his group of friends as he won yet another arm wrestling match. It wasn't an ugly look, she noted as she continued watching him wipe perspiration from his forehead. Not that he was tired of winning, but because it was a rather hot afternoon. In fact, he decided it was so hot that he would go shirtless in class and leave his figure to be drooled over by the females. What a pig.

But, did she find him attractive? She gazed once more at his smile which transformed into a small laugh, and felt her heart jump. That must be the effect of slurping down her soup quickly, she reassured herself. Focusing her attention on her fiancé once more, her gaze fell on his muscles which appeared larger due to him flexing while he arm wrestled with Hiroshi next. His blue eyes always appeared lively, which enhanced his facial features whenever he was angry or simply amused. Her eyes travelled lower to his firm hands, recalling the walk home from Ryugenzawa when their hands were interlaced the entire walk home.

Her face grew hot as images flashed through her mind when she and Ranma were in close proximity due to many occasions such as being in the closet together when he tried to seduce her to rid of her body suit, or when she sat on his lap later that same evening. She never really noticed how many times Ranma was so close to her. It dawned on her then. Ranma wasn't ugly in the slightest.

In fact he was very, very attractive.

"Well, Akane? Are you gonna answer me or what?" Sayuri whined, breaking Akane away from her thoughts.

The words got stuck in her throat and she knew that she couldn't say what she couldn't comprehend. For the past year she simply saw Ranma as Ranma, neither ugly nor attractive. He was just… _there_. Even when people like Shampoo and Ukyo droned about his looks she simply blocked them out or ignored them altogether. She never considered the possibility of looking at Ranma other than the fact that he was arrogant and never missed an opportunity to embarrass her or ridicule her. That was all she saw him as.

Until now.

Composing herself, she made a bored facial expression and shrugged once again. "He's neither, Sayuri. He's just Ranma, I guess."

The girl groaned and placed her empty bento box into her bag. "I give up, Akane. You're just so stubborn!"

Akane laughed, pushing her desk back as she stood. "That's me alright!" she responded, and proceeded to the trashcan to dump her remains and mostly get an understanding of what she was thinking.

She admitted to herself that Ranma was attractive, but that didn't mean anything! There were tons of attractive boys she knew like… like… what was she? Blind? Why couldn't she think of any other boy who was handsome?

_You only ever notice Ranma._

What? No! That couldn't be the reason why. There was Dr. Tofu, who was very handsome. Even Ryoga was handsome! She smiled, proud to have proved herself wrong. "Exactly! There isn't only Ranma!"

"Isn't only what of me?"

She spun around, face-to-face with the object of her internal conflict. She glanced at his hands which were holding his garbage, although she wish she didn't because she noticed that he was wearing his shirt again, yet it wasn't buttoned and she got a full view of his well-formed abdomen. She blushed profusely, trying to put a lid on her out of control emotions.

"Huh?" He leaned in closer for inspection. "Something wrong with your face, Akane?"

His face was inches from her she noticed, and hated herself for it. It was as if everything he did was under a magnifying glass, and not one thing went undetected. This observation only made her blush more, and she could only shove him away as her response. "Why are you so close, idiot? Mind your own business!"

"What did I do now?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes in a bored manner.

"Mind your own business," she repeated and pointed a finger at his chest. "Why are you running around shirtless?"

He looked confusedly at his shirt before meeting her gaze. "Is that why you're angry? What's wrong with my shirt?"

"W-w-well it's bad enough you're out of uniform already, the least you can do is wear the clothes you already have on!" She stuttered, attempting to save herself from her last statement. She was too focused on Ranma's attire that her brain couldn't form a defense mechanism to avoid her actual thoughts.

"You're acting extremely uncute today," he muttered, rolling his eyes as he walked away from her.

She almost hit him, but realized that it would probably be a bad idea for her to physically connect with him at this moment. Instead she watched him retract to his seat and begin gathering his personal belongings. It's not like she wanted to watch him, it was as if she couldn't pry her eyes away. Well, if her eyes wouldn't leave him, the rest of her would.

She trotted back to her desk and grabbed her bag, prepared to head home for the day. Hinako was too busy napping at her desk so she wouldn't even notice she was gone. Sighing, Akane waved goodbye to her friends and departed for the day, mentally and physically drained. She brightened up a bit though, imagining a house where she would be away from Ranma for a couple hours.

"_Come on, Akane! You can't keep denying the fact that you're totally head-over-heels in love with him."_

The thought emerged so effortlessly as if it had always been in her mind, just confined in its deepest depths. It was calming almost, like it answered all of her questions and she didn't have to fight it anymore. But her being Akane, didn't last very long. "Absolutely not!" She screamed, catching the attention of everyone in her classroom. Her eyes locked with Ranma's and she forgot how to stand, collapsing on her desk behind her before breaking it and falling on her but. "Ouch…"

He was the first person at her side. "Yo, Akane, are you okay?"

She crawled backwards frantically, trying to escape Ranma's tender hand that cradled her head. "Yes! I-I'm fine!" She was relieved to find that Hinako didn't wake up from her slumber and dashed toward the door. "I'm just a little tired," she explained through nervous laughter. "I'll just go home and take a rest!"

The class stared dumbfounded, as she made a beeline toward the exit of the school. She absolutely could not be in love with Ranma Saotome. She would know if she liked Ranma, she sure knew when she liked Dr. Tofu and Ranma was _no _Dr. Tofu. The feelings she had for Ranma was pure animosity.

Maybe there were different kinds of love? Dr. Tofu was kind and sensitive and Ranma was free and impulsive. He barely thought things through before diving into a project to destroy Nerima. But she didn't hate that about him. When she was with him, she was safe and secure. He would always be there to protect her and since she grew so accustom to this fact, she didn't train as hard as she used to. It was nice to know that if she fell there would be two strong arms quick to catch her.

But that didn't mean she loved him. Friends are good support as well! She watched him do the same thing for Shampoo and Ryoga and she would gladly do it for any of her friends. Ranma announced several times that she was his fiancé, but he was egotistical and jumped off the deep end once he realized that Shampoo no longer loved him when she was wearing that Reversal Jewel. But why does that bother her so much that he would confess his love to Shampoo…?

It was too much! Why didn't she just march up to Ranma right now and demand to know that truth? It would be awful, she knew. When she had the Reversal Jewel on and she "confessed" her love for him personally, he insulted her weight. There was her proof right there.

She needed to talk to someone now. She crossed out Nabiki for obvious reasons, and couldn't confide in Kasumi since she was too busy helping their pregnant neighbor. Ukyo Kuonji was absent from school today, so maybe she could go pay her a visit? They were after all "love" rivals, but she couldn't state the reason she was there was for Ranma. If Ukyo knew, then Shampoo knew, and if Shampoo knew, Ranma knew, and if Ranma knew… she would die. She would just ask Ukyo why she loves Ranma. Maybe if she got insight, then she could sort out her feelings too.

Determined, Akane embarked on a journey to Ukyo's where she would ultimately gain control of her life once and for all.

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A/N: I am SO sorry! Oh my gosh! I have been away for nearly a year! :o It's not my fault though, I swear! I accidentally sprayed water on my Mac and had to replace the keyboard but I kept putting it off and finally my brother bought another one because I have no job. I am ready to upload more of my stories though! And summer is practically here so I can finally finish these stories that you have all stood by loyally. Thank you for that.

As for this story, I was rereading Ranma and realized that Akane never bluntly states her opinion on Ranma's looks (and we all know he's smoking hot)! So, I realized that maybe if she would noticed his physical appearance, that might shift her whole mental and emotional view on him as well. That's my oh-so clever way to get Akane to confess her feelings for Ranma.

This may feel a little rushed, and I apologize for that. The next chapters will be better I promise! _ It feels so good to be back and expect to hear from me soon! (:


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